Solid inkjet printing systems are well known. These printing systems include an ink loader, a melting device, at least one printhead, a media transport path, a rotating image receiving member, a release agent application system, a transfix roller, and a media receptacle. Solid ink in various forms, such as sticks, pellets, and pastilles, are inserted into one or more feed channels, each of which terminates in a melting device. The melting device heats the solid ink to a phase change temperature at which the solid ink melts and becomes liquid ink. The liquid ink is supplied to a printhead. A printhead controller generates firing signals that correspond to image data to operate the printhead(s), which eject the melted ink onto a liquid layer supported by a rotating image receiving member to form an ink image on the image receiving member. Media are retrieved from a media supply in the system and transported along the media transport path to a nip selectively formed between the transfix roller and the rotating image receiving member. The arrival of the media is synchronized with the arrival of the ink image on the image receiving member at the nip. The pressure in the nip helps transfer and fix the ink image from the image receiving member to the media. The media then continues along the media transport path to the media receptacle where the media bearing the image may be collected.
At various times during operation, the printheads may be pressurized to purge ink through the inkjet ejectors instead of ejecting the ink as drops directed to the image receiving member. Capturing the purged ink for recirculation is advantageous. Imaging devices having curved image receiving members, however, present challenges to printhead assemblies that recapture purged ink. Multi-color imaging devices, for example, collect and recirculate each color of ink separately to maintain the integrity of the ink colors for re-use. Inserting ink recapture structures between the printheads may increase the length of the printheads in a process direction and, consequently, increase the separation of the printheads from one another. As the zone in which the printheads are arranged gets longer in the process direction, orienting the printheads so they conform to the curvature of the image receiving member becomes increasingly difficult. Thus, the alignment of multiple printheads with respect to the curvature of an image receiving member and efficient collection of purged ink are important aspects in inkjet printers.